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image and renewed energy. Now, they have a meet-up group with more than 400 members from more than 10 countries. Although the group seeks to bring together people who are interested in living sustaina- bly in the city, cultivating a green thumb and learning about the mechanics of food produc- tion are also important. “We don’t just get together and grow stuff,” Pollard said. “It’s about being practical and living sustainably.” For Pollard, that means overcoming agri- cultural practices that he feels are becom- ing increasingly less ethical and sustainable by learning how to grow food in a way that doesn’t deplete or harm the environment while also giving back to the earth. “The amount of respect we put into the way we eat reflects the amount of respect we put into our lives,” Pollard said. Like Michael Pollan, author of “The Omni- vore’s Dilemma,” he feels there is too much focus on diet in modern society. In other words, people have reduced the act of eating to mere calorie counting and measuring fiber content in the name of losing weight and call- ing that healthy. Pollard’s definition of healthy is, in short, cooking and eating real food. But with the convenience of packaged food and lack of ethics in today’s agricultural practices, that can be more difficult than it sounds. And re- turning the nutrients in food waste back to the earth by properly disposing of it is usually the last thing on consumers’ minds. Even so, he said that practicing a sustain- able lifestyle in this way is actually easier in Korea than in the United States, where ag- ribusiness and the government are so large and interconnected and the financial rewards are so large for so many that major shifts in policy can be difficult to achieve. The result: poor food products and unhealthy people. “Korea is a very responsive country that still has a very vibrant small business sector,” he said. “So in many ways, Korea has the agil- ity to reposition itself and its business sector much more easily on issues of sustainability.” To help its members make food sustaina- bility part of their everyday lives, SCF holds community events that hit six areas in relation to food: urban farming, cooking classes and food education, urban living methods, urban sustainability R&D and community wellness. “Some people might join because they want to grow some herbs in their apartment or learn how to cook at home, but others are looking for social support from like-minded people or practical ways of living more sustainably,” he said. “No matter what reason a person has for joining, we hope that they can leave our events feeling like they had a great time, with good people, and learned a little bit about how they can live a joyful life sustainably.” To that end, there are classes on urban farming and rooftop gardening, cooking (spice tasting, beer making, cheese making, using traditional Korean vegetables), food storage (canning, dehydrating and freezing), urban composting and everyday microbiolo- gy for sustainable living. Pollard often brings in experts from various fields to explore how food is connected to holistic health and well- ness, which involves living a slower, more thoughtful lifestyle and using food to care for yourself as opposed to just meeting a need. He also leads a Life Support Program, which is a forum for people wanting to make a life change. Pollard is developing connections with other like-minded groups. In November, SCF col- laborated with the Korea chapter of WWOOF to host a day trip to an organic farm in Namyangju. SCF plans to continue this part- nership and others with organizations such as Urban Bees Seoul, Magpie Brewing Co. and organic farmers around Seoul. This year, they will also launch new projects, including the creation of an organic garden and new cooking workshops, development of new products for a farmer’s market and expansion of the community support program. “We believe that growing our group is like growing anything in the garden,” he said. “Quick growth will be weak and not strong enough to survive the challenges that inevi- tably come.” They’ve planted the seeds for success — now all they have to do is watch their garden grow. 57 ‘I realized that urban sustainability educator was the perfect job for me. The only downside was, that job doesn’t really exist. Despite that inconvenient detail, I have committed myself to creating it.’ SCF founder Justin Pollard ‘The amount of respect we put into the way we eat refects the amount of respect we put into our lives.’ SCF founder Justin Pollard MoRE INFo All events can be found on the SCF meet-up page (meetup.com/Seoul-City-Farmers) or on Facebook under SeoulCityFarmers..